I read your
summary of The
Neo-Tech Discovery on the web. I have to ask you: Looking at
Neo-Tech advertising materials and its web page, it all looks to me like a
complete scam. I see no concrete or checkable fact presented, no
argument or even what I could really call a theory, and the testimonials
on the web page have a suspiciously uniform style of writing. Since
you have actually read one of these books, can you tell me if there is anything
to this at all?

What these
people are doing, basically, is using Objectivism as a launching pad for their
own theory of self-improvement via "collapse of personal mysticism".
Where they veer way off-course into their own variant of mysticism is through
their baseless assertions about

Civilization
of the Universe

Extraterrestrial
"Zons"

Thinkons
(particles of consciousness)

Universal
Computer (alien Internet)

As you and I
both know, arbitrary assertions are readily dismissable in the Objectivist
epistemology. Why these folks have to pervert Objectivism into a bunch of
mumbo-jumbo is beyond me, but here's their publicly stated reasoning:

The founder of
the Neo-Tech company, Wallace Ward (aka Frank Wallace), started with the
benevolent intention of "collapsing mysticism worldwide".
There's job security for sure. Anyway, his first publication, The
Neo-Tech Reference Encyclopedia, took an Objectivist look at 100 or so books
and offered a thumbnail review of them. It also supplied a set of 144
"primary concepts" that were basically Objectivist treatments of
various everyday situations from romantic relationships to church
attendance. This publication was commercially unsuccessful, so Wallace had
to regroup and start again.

While all this
was happening, Wallace was also pursuing the development of life-extension
technology. He was storing hard currency in a safe in the floor for
start-up of an overseas research company that would be free of FDA
regulations. Apparently, he was not paying taxes on this money, and his
ex-girlfriend turned him in to the IRS. He spent a few years in federal
prison. While there in 1986, he pounded out The Neo-Tech Discovery,
a book that condensed the original Neo-Tech manuscript into "114
Advantages". This book was published by his family under the newly
reorganized Neo-Tech Publishing (NTP) company and became a commercial success.

Since that
time, many other books have poured from that company. The most notable one is The
Neo-Tech System, which explains how to set up a publishing company similar
to NTP. The interesting thing about their approach is the use of 100%
accountability. There are no "employees", only a set of
interdependent contractors, each of whom is responsible for his own bottom line.

With the
arrival of the Internet, NTP has opted to publish some of their books on the Web
and make money marketing other materials. One is Kevin Trudeau's Mega Memory
system. Trudeau and Ward met each other in prison. Ward was in jail
for tax evasion, Trudeau for credit card fraud. Trudeau has been heavily
involved in Scientology in the past, and now he's a Neo-Tech advocate.
This could have several interpretations, so I'll just leave it at that.

You can now
read The Neo-Tech Discovery in its entirety on the web at http://www.neo-tech.com/advantages/.
This book is really the "hook" to get people started. The actual
attitudes offered in this particular work are largely in line with Objectivism.
It's only later that the mumbo-jumbo is introduced.

Why did Wallace
do this? Somewhere among the literature, he points out that he needed to
make Neo-Tech larger-than-life in order to persuade people to his point of
view. He claims that the concepts of "Civilization of the
Universe", etc. are merely "metaphors" for the evolution of man
into the ultimate being--one who controls existence through his conscious effort
and productivity. However, a candid survey of the writings tells a
different story, namely, the treatment of these concepts as already having
concrete referents. This is dishonest concept-formation, which is ironic
since Neo-Tech is supposed to mean "fully integrated honesty".

How do I know
all this? Back in 1992, I received a card in the mail advertising
Neo-Tech. It promised all sorts of things and had a money-back guarantee,
so I ordered it. To my surprise and delight, it was Objectivism
redressed. Now, take into account that I had adopted Objectivism as my
worldview in 1988-89, but had not yet met anyone who shared that
outlook. Here comes Neo-Tech, my first exposure to anyone outside of Ayn
Rand who advocated Objectivism. Since I was pleased with Neo-Tech, I
ordered the companion business volume, The Neo-Tech System. These
books were not cheap ($65 for the first one, $99 for the second one), but were
pretty big, and since many self-improvement systems are expensive anyway, I
didn't have a real problem with the cost.

By 1995, NTP
was on the web. I joined their e-mail list and newsgroup. This is
where the problems really started, because at this point, Wallace had gone the
mystical Zonpower route. The interesting thing was to see Neo-Tech
advocates lock horns, not just with "conventional" mystics and
socialists, but with regular Objectivists as well (of both the ARI and TOC
variety). I spent considerable time and effort trying to give NTP
"the benefit of the doubt". But I finally just gave them
"the doubt", threw in the towel, and committed myself to studying
fully-grounded, garden-variety Objectivism.

I would like to
see a commercially successful self-improvement company rise that uses
Objectivism as its foundation. I don't think there has been one since the
NBI disintegrated. However, NTP just ain't it. We'd have better luck
trying to convert Stephen Covey and Hyrum Smith from Mormonism to
Objectivism. Then they could do some slight alterations to the
FranklinCovey training company and publish a new book, The Seven Habits of
Highly Effective Objectivists.

Well, this
might be more information than you wanted. But I do want to emphasize one
key point: The fact that the (mostly) non-mystical Neo-Tech Discovery was
commercially successful shows that there is a hunger out there for
self-improvement material based on Objectivism. Many of NTP's claimed
"benefits" are true within the context of many people's lives.
For example, a devout Mormon who gives 10% of his gross income to the church
could dump his personal mysticism, withdraw his church financing, and see an
instant jump in his income of 10% as a result. This would be great except
that NTP's own views degenerate into mysticism as well. But you get the
idea.

Bob Bidinotto
made an excellent point in his tape "Organized Individualism: Building the
Objectivist Community" when he said that Objectivists need to lead by
example. We need to demonstrate the daily benefits we each enjoy through
our worldview. A Christian who is successful in his health, wealth,
romance and finance is not going to be very motivated to change his views if he
thinks his success comes from obedience to Biblical teachings. Showing how
we can enjoy those same or greater benefits without the dead weight of
supernaturalism, mysticism or self-sacrifice is key to persuasion.